


Left Unsaid

by semele



Category: Reign (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-28
Updated: 2014-06-28
Packaged: 2018-02-06 12:52:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1858704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semele/pseuds/semele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kenna speaks Scots with a hint of an accent, and if Bash listens carefully enough, he can actually hear it by now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Left Unsaid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [woobloo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/woobloo/gifts).



> I'm terribly sorry that this isn't as good as it should be. I had much less time to write than I originally thought I'd have, and so this story isn't as polished as I'd like it to be.

Kenna speaks Scots with a hint of an accent, and if Bash listens carefully enough, he can actually hear it by now. 

It's strange how she seems a bit French to him, when she never really seemed Scottish when they were in France, but then: who even thought about things like that all those years ago? Sometimes Bash makes a game of reminding himself his concerns from when he first met Kenna (when he first met Mary): there was bloodshed in the woods, and a world of court intrigues ruled by his mother; there was poison, and chains, and madness. Their life right now seems quite tame in comparison.

Or maybe he's just more jaded.

“You have to count your blessings,” says Kenna sometimes, and her solemnity never fails to rub Bash the wrong way, even as he obediently follows her advice. He has a wife who loves him and a queen whom he needs; his hands, rough and busy ever since he can remember, are kept from idleness he wouldn't be able to bear. He never thought that he could lose his father, his brother, and then his country for good measure, but still feel like he had family.

That he feels better when he doesn't think too much about who he actually considers family is another thing entirely. Some things are better left unsaid.

***

It seems so obvious that after all these years Kenna still serves her queen they never even consider she could do anything else. It doesn't matter whether they're in Scotland or in France – Kenna belongs with Mary, and Mary belongs with Kenna. It's simple like that.

Bash remembers it still, the way she stood wrapped in a traveling cloak as their old life in France went up in flames soon after his brother's death. He knew they'd have to leave anyway; little Charles was too young to rule on his own, and neither he nor Kenna could afford to stay in a country in which queen Catherine had more and more power.

This wasn't why they left though.

“I love her,” said Kenna simply, and even if he had questions, the look on her face made him never ask them.

(“I love her too,” he almost said, but thankfully he bit his tongue just in time.)

When Mary saw him standing by the horses that night, she held his gaze for much longer than it was necessary, but he never quite figured out what she was trying to thank him for.

Their journey was a blur of urgent whispers and concerned faces, nights and meals in the saddle, and not much time to think about anything at all. Not that Bash was so eager to think about much back then.

It was days before he had a chance to share a bed with his wife again, and as they fell apart, gasping and spent, he didn't have to ask to know that she, too, felt like something was missing.

***

Things are different now.

They are adults, grown and mature, and with lives carved from scraps of here and there, crafted carefully so that they don't fall apart again. The secrets they keep aren't made of hot blood and whispers; they're solemn and silent, fueled by cold dread rather than nervous excitement. Some things are too dangerous to even mention, so they don't talk about them at all.

Like: a love bite on Kenna's neck that Bash doesn't remember giving her.

Like: a loud breath Bash draws as he kneels before Mary in her throne room, his lips brushing the tips of her fingers in a show of reverence and loyalty.

Like: Mary's eyes fixed on Kenna's hands in the mirror as she works the jewels out of her hair every night before bed.

Those are all small things that the court eagerly turns its eyes from; ask no questions, hear no lies. It's only natural that the queen wants to have a bedfellow, and that she chooses an old friend, a lady who's been with her since before her first marriage. After all, no one wants to sleep alone; shame on him who thinks evil of it.

Some nights, without warning, Bash finds his marriage bed empty, and he's too smart to question it, ever. There are things between his wife and his queen that he has no part in, always have been and always will be. Only a fool would speak of them out loud, and if Bash were this kind of fool, he'd be dead twenty times over by now.

(Some nights, Kenna sends word to tell him that she'd be staying with the queen tonight, and Bash knows that this is an invitation he'd never consider declining.

Mary whispers to Kenna in Scots before she starts kissing her lips, but when Bash curses under his breath as they both slide their hands into his hair to help his head settle between his wife's legs, it's always in French. Kenna is stuck between them, whispering in Scots with just a hint of an accent. Hers are the only fully formulated words that ever fall between them; Kenna needs words like Mary needs comfort and Bash – relief, so they listen to her behind the closed doors. It doesn't take long, it never does; soon her words become chaotic, and then she falls into Mary's arms breathing loudly, her hand sliding from Bash's hair to his cheek in a smooth caress.

He sees the ladies smile before he lowers his head again to start kissing his way up Mary's thigh.

At some point, Kenna's hand always disappears from his face, and soon he can feel the sheets shifting as she settles behind Mary, and lets her sit between her open legs. Kenna's hand reaches for his, and finds it on Mary's hip. For a brief moment, everything is right in the world; all that matters for Bash is that Mary is arching her back under his and Kenna's fingers, her body surrounded by them like she's been surrounding every aspect of their lives for the past fifteen years. As she tenses in her release, Bash cries out with her, and just for a second, he forgets all that he's lost.)

In the morning, their silence falls on them like a shroud.


End file.
